Sometimes when I produce material for this blog, I may stray from topics that are directly relevant in legal or business writing. This is one such contribution. I believe that there are issues which it’s worth covering even if the scope is limited for applying them in a professional context, even more so in the case of a word which all non-native speakers know well but which they rarely employ with all the richness it can convey or using all possible derivatives. That word, of course, is fuck: a taboo word and thus inevitably avoided when speaking or referring to clients and colleagues, but frequently heard in some settings in everyday speech. I don’t claim that I will give a comprehensive overview of all possibilities, but I at least hope to offer a hint of its versatility and of the many derivative expressions.
The root is the single verb, to fuck, which the OED defines as to have sexual intercourse with, or in a secondary meaning to damage or ruin something; the past participle is often used as an adjective in this sense – e.g. this TV set is fucked. By extension, the secondary meaning can also be used to indicate that a situation is hopeless (e.g. At 3-0 down with only five minutes to go, our football team was fucked) or that a person is exhausted (e.g. I'm sorry but I can't face meeting up with you this evening - after staying up almost all night last night, I'm totally fucked). The secondary meaning presumably arose through metaphorical usage, though it’s curious that it was used in wholly negative sense.
Fuck can also be used as a noun, in which case the principal meaning is an act of sexual intercourse. However, it can also, with an appropriate adjective, be used to convey the aptitude of a partner in the context of this activity: a good/bad/hopeless/wonderful/boring/amazing fuck refers to a person who undertakes the task in question and the qualities they bring to the task.
Interestingly, despite the word being so commonly used, the derivation remains the subject of some debate. The writer Bill Bryson, in his book 'Mother Tongue', claims that it could be from Latin or French. However, the OED and other sources suggest that it is of Germanic origin (citing the words, from Swedish and Dutch dialects respectively, focka and fokkelen) noting that these could come from an Indo-European root meaning 'strike', shared by the Latin pugnus 'fist'.
However, with these comments we barely even scratch the surface. Below are a range of other usages common in modern English:
Fucking hell!
This is a standalone expression which can, depending on the context, be used to convey emotions like surprise, dismay, annoyance, shock or exasperation.
Fucking used with adjectival force
The present participle often goes before a noun to give it an emphasis. Often this is negative (e.g. What the hell are you doing, you fucking idiot?) but it can be done in a positive way, too (e.g. You fucking beauty!, when someone does something you wholeheartedly endorse).
Fucking used with adverbial force
It can also be used in an adverbial sense: Don’t even fucking think about it! (Incidentally, when I was a student, I knew an Irish guy who used the adverb fuckingly - as in, for example, this is fuckingly good beer - but while I liked this usage a lot, I’ve never heard anyone else say it).
The verb fuck in phrases with various prepositions
- to fuck something up: to make a mess of it, e.g. we fucked up royally by allowing that employee to leave the firm (the noun a fuckup exists, too, and the first six words of the previous example could be replaced by it was an immense fuckup to allow);
- to fuck someone up: to damage them emotionally, e.g. life with my partner was difficult because he/she had been completely fucked up by a previous abusive relationship
- to fuck someone about/around: to waste their time, e.g. don’t fuck me around – I’m busy and don’t have the time to waste on this kind of stuff
- to fuck about/around: to waste one’s own time, e.g. I intended to write some more blog posts last weekend, but I ended up just fucking around online on football message boards
- to fuck someone over: to deceive someone or put one over on them, e.g. that car dealer fucked me over good and proper when he got me to pay five thousand quid for that heap of junk
- to fuck someone off: to annoy them, e.g. that car dealer really fucked me off by defrauding me of my money
Fuck in other expressions
- Fuck off! is a very common way of telling someone to go away, but Get fucked!, Go fuck yourself! and Fuck you! among others are also heard.
- Fuck me! has an obvious function in an intimate moment as a piece of advice, a request or an instruction; however, it can also be deployed to indicate surprise (e.g. Fuck me! I've just found out that my 70-year-old neighbour is dating a 20-year-old. I never thought that he/she had it in him/her). There's scope for some creativity here and you can embellish as the mood takes you - e.g. Fuck me sideways! or Fuck me through a hedge backwards!
- Fuck can also be inserted for emphasis into phrases like Shut the fuck up!, Get the fuck out!, What the fuck is this?! and What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!
- I don’t give a fuck is a way of saying that I don’t care
- Fuck all is a British phrase meaning nothing at all, e.g. Could you lend me a few quid, please? I’ve got fuck all money just now
Other derivative forms
- The adjective fuckable denotes a person with whom the speaker finds the idea of sexual intercourse not entirely unappealing
- The noun fucker tends now to be used away from any connotation with the coital act, instead being used as a general term of abuse, e.g. I can’t stand that miserable fucker. However, it can on occasion be employed almost admiringly – e.g. my ex’s new boyfriend is a handsome fucker
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Having gone through the main ways the word and its various derivations can be used, I’ll just finish with a couple of observations.
Firstly, there’s a danger in overuse. Sometimes, speakers can be heard using fucking every couple of words, but this helps to lose any emphasis that you may wish to impart.
Secondly, you’re more likely to be speaking the word than writing it. In that case, it should normally be the focus of stress in the sentence. My own feeling is that this is done more effectively by speakers from the north of England than from the south of England: the former tend to use broader vowels, which in my view really lend themselves to this vocabulary. But then I’m invariably biased in favour of the north of England!
